With all of today’s news, it was hard to decide on just one topic for today… address the latest on how Domino’s reacted to those gross videos posted online? Overdone by now. Comment on Pizza Hut’s latest announcement looking for a summer intern to run their Twitter? Yawn. Ponder how Freddie Mac will react publicly to their CEO’s suicide?  Too distressing.

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Isn’t that the old adage? The shoemakers children don’t have shoes?  That’s what I think of when I read the Feb. 10 review of “PR: A Persuasive Industry” in USA Today.

The article starts out with this…

Sleazy. Disingenuous. These are words used in U.K. newspaper coverage of the public relations industry. PR, oddly enough, doesn’t have great PR. People tend to think that PR involves being manipulative and saying whatever is in the employer’s best interests.

Gee. Allow me to keep reading.

(The authors) call PR an amoral industry, a tool for good or evil purposes. There was, alas, Hitler, Goebbels, and the Nazi propaganda machine.

More? Why make my face more red that it is right now? Stop reading!  I can’t…it’s like a traffic accident. Must…keep…reading.

I’ve not read this book, but the reviewer goes on to say that in the book the authors debate whether or not it is the role of a PR professional to tell the truth.

I am here to tell you that every journalist (both traditional and new) I’ve ever worked with would tell me where to stick it if I ever lied to them.  If a client asked us to lie (and it has happened), we immediately resign the business.

I’m also here to tell you that PR professionals live by a Code of Ethics and I’ve seen people kicked out of industry organizations for displaying anything but professionalism. So there are good and bad in every profession. Until you walk a day (or five) in our shoes, let’s leave the negativeness and bashing alone.

It may not be national news but for some allergy sufferers, it’s huge news.  Last November, the Chicago Tribune did another investigative report similar to one from several years ago during the height of the stories about lead paint on children’s toys. This time, the testing and subsequent report was on various food products labeled “gluten-free” that are on the shelves of several Chicagoland grocery stores. 

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Dan Abrams, the former general manager of MSNBC, is launching a media-strategy firm, according to today’s Wall Street Journal.  His advantage is using a panel of journalists if your company faces a difficult public relations isssue to “weigh in on how media outlets would likely respond to different PR strategies.”

One of Abrams’s investors believes “big companies will be attracted to its ‘expert network’ and it’s pay-per-use model.”

Isn’t this a conflict of interest?  Since when do journalists moonlight as business consultants?  Isn’t our industry trying to stay away from this type of model, citing ethics?

What do you think?

A spin spotter?  Come on.  First of all it’s one thing to push blame of spin on PR people but how lazy do we think newspapers are that they need spinoculars?

Apparently, there is a new program for journalists to download and it catches any bias or spin in their pieces.  As Katherine asks the question herself “do you think this product is performing a task that editors and newspapers should be doing themselves?”  Continue Reading »

   Until recently I wasn’t familiar with Kiehl’s products.  Because of Brad Pitt, I now know that Kiehl’s is a beauty and cosmetics maker known for its old-school, natural formulas and minimalistic packaging.  Read full article:  http://thecycle.prweekblogs.com/2008/08/19/kiehls-taps-pitt-for-cause-marketing-effort/. Continue Reading »

Have you seen the New York Times article about using “striking words” in your news releases to gain the attention of reporters, especially on slow news days? Oh yes! It’s true. The article, titled “Need Press? Repeat: ‘Green,’ ‘Sex,’ ‘Cancer,’ ‘Secret,’ ‘Fat’” ran last week and quotes, GASP!, PR people who support the notion that if you sensationalize a headline, the story will run in most major publications. Continue Reading »

With new design comes new opportunities!  We found out just this morning that your one-and-only spinsucks.com is nominated for best marketing blog by the Blogger’s Choice Awards!  And by somebody we don’t even know.  So thank you “lamsemjaza”, we appreciate the readership and the love for the nomination.

    So, if you hate spin and love FADS, vote here! 

Blog written by Sydney Ayers, APR

Over the weekend, PRSA Chairman and CEO Jeff Julin was interviewed in the Denver Post.  During the course of the interview, the reporter asked Jeff about a somewhat controversial seminar the Colorado Chapter held last year entitled “Taking the BS out of PR.”  Jeff’s answer was elegant and to the point.

“There is no question that many people think public relations is simply publicity and spin.  That is a challenge to individual professionals and the profession as a whole.  For me, public relations is an overarching communications discipline that focuses on helping organizations develop strong relationships with stakeholders.  When done well, public relations helps organizations grow, prosper, and contribute to the communities in which they operate.”

Heady stuff that.  Convincing clients and others that what we do on a daily basis in’t about weaving stories, distorting facts and, well, spinning issues is a difficult assignment.  It is something we have to be committed to doing — PRSA member or not — on a daily basis.  We must make it our mission to encourage truthful, open and respectful discourse in the public arena.  Only then can we hope to turn the tide and fully restore our image as the trustworthy communicators we know we are.

Check out the full interview with Jeff Julin at  http://www.denverpost.com/businessheadlines/ci_8899305

When I took my first “professional” job in public relations there was a study often touted that said the reputation of PR people was right up there with used car salesmen.

Fortunately, just as the process of buying a car now is more consumer friendly and credible than in 1984, generally the same can be said about those of us who “do” public relations for a living – generally that is.

When it comes to garnering publicity, rule one of media relations is to get headlines for your clients first – good ones – and in the process, do not make a spectacle of yourself, and in turn, make the rest of your colleagues look like charlatans.

Unfortunately, a bunch of “PR” people in some key government jobs, well-heeled agencies, reputable companies, and elsewhere are making some pretty bonehead decisions about how best to “do” PR.

In addition to “doing” PR for a living, I’m on adjunct faculty at Loyola University.  I’m also an optimist and always try to find the good in every situation.  The only good that comes from some of the fiascos of late is that those of us molding the views and practices of future public relations professionals now have access to lots of real-time case studies of what NOT to do.

Let’s start with FEMA – yet again!

A fake news conference!?!?  FEMA Meets the Press, Which Happens to Be . . . FEMA

In 2007, how could anyone – let alone an entire office of public relations cohorts – think this is right or smart?  This is stupid, unforgivable, outrageous, and paid for by our tax dollars.

Now, let’s cruise on to the Navy.  It’s pretty bad when Navy publications are writing negative stories about an endeavor of their own – and then the story becomes a two-part investigation that gets picked up by the Associated Press. Somewhere between a good idea and reality the goodwill journey sailed a bit off course.

“The Navy hospital ship Comfort succeeded as a public relations tool but fell short of realizing its public health potential during a four-month tour of 12 South and Central American countries, critics say. The ship’s crew dispensed free medical care to 98,000 people during a voyage that ended Oct. 19, improving and even saving lives under the Bush administration’s “medical diplomacy” initiative.  Yet when it sailed away, the ship often left patients frustrated and its potential unfulfilled because its agenda was dictated by public relations and politics…”  (Read on at http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/ap_comfort_071030/ )

And then there’s the list of banished PR flacks – by Editor in Chief Chris Anderson of Wired who writes “I’ve had it. I get more than 300 emails a day and my problem isn’t spam (Cloudmark Desktop solves that nicely), it’s PR people. Lazy flacks send press releases to the Editor in Chief of Wired because they can’t be bothered to find out who on my staff, if anyone, might actually be interested in what they’re pitching. Everything else gets banned on first abuse. The following is just the last month’s list of people and companies who have been added to my Outlook blocked list. All of them have sent me something inappropriate at some point in the past 30 days. Many of them sent press releases; others just added me to a distribution list without asking. If their address gets harvested by spammers by being published here, so be it–turnabout is fair play. There is no getting off this list. If you’re on it and have something appropriate to say to me, use a different email address.”

I don’t know Chris and I am not on his list.  I do want to meet him because I agree with him 100 percent!  I like people who think like me.  I want him to come be a guest lecturer in my PR Writing class – and while he’s in town, share his views candidly with anyone who will listen! 

And yes, I think his point is not that far removed from the previous two examples. 

The common denominator is the word “RELATIONS.”  Whether you call it “media relations” or “public relations” the word that defines the function, the process, the opportunity to call it a “profession” and yourself a professional is the R word.  RELATIONS — you need them.

Whether offering a briefing about tragic fires, sharing goodwill and health care with those less fortunate, or pitching the latest gadget, hot company, or rock star CEO, you just cannot carry a business card that says “Public Relations” without understanding the concept behind the R word.  If you don’t, you’re a fraud.  You either need to go back to school or try selling something besides the truth for a living.  — Shawn M. Kahle, APR